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Writing Competitions for Law Students: Legal Short Fiction

Tip

Sponsors/facilitators of student writing competitions provide more detailed instructions and rules at their websites.  Students need to review the information and rules available at these websites.  

ABA Journal / Ross Writing Contest for Legal Short Fiction

ABA Journal / Ross Writing Contest for Legal Short Fiction

  • Sponsor: ABA Journal, "the flagship magazine of the American Bar Association"
  • Topic & Format requirements include: "Entries must be original works of fiction of no more than 5,000 words that illuminate the role of the law and/or lawyers in modern society."  "Entries may be unpublished or published no earlier than December 1, 2024.  Entries posted publicly on the internet, regardless of the forum or venue, will be considered published for the purposes of the Contest, as would be any entry published in a print publication or literary journal of any kind.  The ABA Journal will be the sole judge of an entry's eligibility."  "Entries will be judged on creativity, plot exposition, legal insight and character development."
  • Eligibility requirements include: "Entrants must be U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents and 21 years or older by May 1, 2025.  The winner is responsible for all taxes associated with receipt of the prize."  "ABA officers, directors, staff members, members of the ABA Journal Board of Editors and their immediate household or family members, and freelance writers for the ABA Journal who have been paid for articles published after January 1, 2024, are not eligible to enter or win." 
  • Artificial Intelligence: "The ABA prohibits the use of all generative artificial intelligence, including large language models, to create any portion of a contestant’s written submission for this competition whether in the research, writing, or editing phase.  Generative AI in this context includes, but is not limited to, OpenAI’s “GPT” series, BLOOM, Jasper, BERT, Galactica, and Lex.  Note that for these purposes, AI does not include basic tools for checking grammar, spelling, references, etc.  By submitting an entry to the contest, participants are affirming that they did not utilize AI in the preparation of their written work product.  The ABA reserves the right to screen submissions for use of AI through an AI detector. Contestants utilizing AI to generate their work product in whole or in part will be disqualified."
  • Prize: "The winner will receive a prize of $5,000."
  • Deadline for entries:  "5 p.m. CDT May 1, 2025."